Halo: Reach Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Your first enemy encounter will be a bridge full of Covenant. Shoot them with the cannon -- the blast radius should take care of any poor aiming. If you hold the trigger, your projectiles will bounce; you don't want this to happen.

The sprawling battlefield below can be distracting, but you need to focus on the pair of turrets. Destroy them with two direct hits a piece.

Near a Covenant tower ahead is a Wraith tank and another turret that must be dealt with immediately. Worry about the Elites in the area after you take these out. After taking out the Wraith, a cutscene will occur.

Inside the spherical shield of the Spire you can finally heal up and grab some good weapons. In addition to the oh-so-handy DMR, grab a Jetpack Armor Upgrade if you wish to do some Achievement hunting later in the level.

Your comrades will head straight up the center of this area, but you should stick to the cliff wall on your approach to the Spire. Use the rocks for cover and crouch to run through the pipes. Flanking the enemies from the side will allow you to snipe at the Skirmishers high on the rocks with Focus Rifles while your buddies slowly catch up.

Jorge will eventually pass you and hop right into the center of the enemies, distracting them and making it easy to pick them off from the cliff side. Alternately, you can grab the truck in the far North and have Jorge get on it. He'll hop on the bed with his giant chain gun and you can easily take out the enemies by using your driving skills to strafe them.

Once all the enemies in the area are dead, you'll be charged with infiltrating the Spire. There's an easy way to do this and a hard way -- the latter will earn you an Achievement.

The easiest way to get to the top of the Spire is drive the truck, Jorge and all, straight down the slope and into the tunnel leading through the bottom of the structure. You may want to snipe the Grunts on the turrets before doing this. At the bottom, ditch Jorge and enter one of the glowing gravity lifts on either side of the structure. These will take you to the top.

The "hard method" involves jacking the Banshee vehicle flying around the area. To do this you can use one of two methods. One is to wait for it to swing nearby and then hit it with a charged Plasma Pistol to disable it. Jack it once it hits the ground. The other method will get you the Achievement we've been talking about:

Achievement Tip: Banshees, Fast and Low

Hijack a Banshee during the Reach Campaign.

You need the jetpack for this one. On the Tip of the Spear, once you crash inside the semispherical shield of the final tower, work your way towards it. When you're given the go-ahead to infiltrate the tower and get to the top, look along the tall cliff face. Several platforms made out of what appear to be pipes can be found here. Jetpack up to these and wait for a Bansee to come for you. When the Banshee turns around, it moves especially slow. Jetpack towards the Banshee and hit the prompt to jack it. You can also do this from higher rock faces in the area, just make sure you are jetpacking or falling when you jack the low-flying Banshee!

Video: Jack a Banshee, Take out the Spire

With the Banshee you can just fly to the upper platform of the Spire! The upper level of the Spire is a circular walkway. A control room is your target, but its guarded by two Grunts with Plasma Cannons and an Elite with an Energy Sword.

Before taking on these threats, take out the Grunts in the hallway and be sure to grab a Plasma Pistol and a Plasma Rifle from the dead Grunts and the rack in the hallway.

Peek into one of the doors and throw a grenade at the Grunt with the Plasma Cannon. Immediately charge your Plasma Pistol and fire at the Elite at the controls. If you hit him, run in firing and then, as he draws his sword, hit him in the face with a melee attack. Immediately swing around and knock out any remaining Grunts.